Best Paying Pokies in Australia

The best paying pokies are the ones with the highest return to player (RTP). On our list, Texas Tea leads at 97.35% and Big Bad Wolf follows at 97.34%, with Immortal Romance, Jammin’ Jars and a run of Pragmatic Play games between 96.5% and 96.9%. Online pokies like these return around 96% over the long run, while club and pub machines in most states only have to return 85% to 87.5%. Below are the highest paying pokies we review, what RTP and volatility mean for a real session, and where Australians play them.

Highest RTP Pokies in Australia

These are the highest returning online pokies we review, ranked by the default RTP the studio publishes. Volatility shows how the wins are spread, and the max win is the most a single round can pay as a multiple of the bet. Casinos can run lower settings of many of these games, so the figure in the game’s information screen is the one that counts at a given casino.

Three games on our site return more than the table but are harder to play from Australia. Texas Tea from IGT is listed at 97.35% in its online version and Big Red from Aristocrat at 97.04%, but IGT games turn up in few offshore lobbies and Aristocrat doesn’t offer its pokies to Australians online at all. Mega Joker from NetEnt can return up to 99% in its Supermeter mode, but NetEnt restricts Australia, so its tile is often hidden for Australian accounts.

Where to Play the Best Paying Pokies

The casinos above accept Australians and carry thousands of pokies each. Pragmatic Play and Play’n GO, the two studios with the most games in our table, are in most of their lobbies but not all of them, so check the studio list before you deposit if one game matters to you.

The return setting is the casino’s choice, not the studio’s. Open the game’s information or paytable screen before you play: if it shows 94.5% on a game the studio publishes at 96.5%, the casino runs the lower version. A high RTP also helps only if your winnings reach you, so payout speed counts as much as the return, and our fast payout casinos guide compares withdrawal times at the casinos we review.

What Makes a Pokie Pay Well: RTP, Volatility and Max Win

RTP is the share of all bets a pokie returns as wins over millions of spins. At 96.5%, a game keeps 3.5 cents of every dollar bet over the long run; at 94.5% it keeps 5.5 cents, more than half as much again. RTP says nothing about a single session, though: in an hour of play almost any result is possible, and the long-run figure only shows through over a very large number of spins.

Volatility decides how a game gets to its RTP. A low volatility pokie pays small wins often: Starburst, at 96.09%, lands a win on about 22.6% of spins. A high volatility pokie pays less often but saves its value for features and big hits, so two games with the same RTP can feel completely different over a $50 session.

Max win is the ceiling. Big Bass Bonanza caps a round at 2,100 times the bet, while Jammin’ Jars allows 20,000x. A higher ceiling usually comes with higher volatility, because the game has to hold value back to pay those rare big wins. For the rest of the games Australians play for money, our real money pokies guide covers the full range.

Best Paying Pokies by Volatility

The right pokie depends as much on how you like to play as on the RTP.

• Low volatility: Texas Tea (97.35%) and Starburst (96.09%) pay small wins often and suit a long session on a small balance.
• Medium volatility: Big Red (97.04%), Thunderstruck II (96.65%) and Wheel of Fortune (96.60%) mix regular line wins with features that can pay well.
• High volatility: Big Bad Wolf (97.34%), Immortal Romance (96.86%) and Jammin’ Jars (96.83%) go quiet for longer and save their value for bonus rounds.
• Very high volatility: Reactoonz (96.51%) can run a long time between big cascades, and its best results come in bursts.

On a small balance, a low or medium volatility game at a high RTP keeps you playing longest. If you’re after one big result, high volatility gives you the chance, at the cost of longer losing runs.

Do Online Pokies Pay More Than Pub Pokies?

Usually, yes. Most online pokies are published at 94% to 97%, while the law in each state only sets a minimum for club and pub machines, and venues pick their settings from there.

Queen of the Nile shows the gap: the online version returns 94.88%, while the ACT approved the venue machine with settings of 87.87%, 90.31% and 92.26%. A venue RTP also plays out over a much longer time than a session. In Queensland the return is measured over the machine’s life, and Dolphin Treasure has 35,640,000 possible reel combinations, which would take about 5.6 years of nonstop play to cycle through.

Jackpots take a cut as well. If a machine returns 87% and 5% of every bet feeds a linked jackpot, players who don’t win the jackpot get back 82%. That’s why progressive games publish lower base returns, like Mega Moolah at 88.12%. Our pub pokies guide covers the venue machines in more detail.

Same Pokie, Different RTP

Many studios release one game in several RTP versions and let each casino choose. Book of Dead comes at 96.21%, 94.25%, 91.25%, 87.25% or 84.18%. Legacy of Dead runs from 96.58% down to 84.55%, Reactoonz from 96.51% down to 84.51%, and Big Bass Bonanza at 96.71%, 95.67% or about 94.6%. The game looks and plays the same in every version; only the return changes.

The difference adds up fast. At $1 a spin, $100 lasts about 2,836 spins on average on Reactoonz at 96.51%, about 1,803 at 94.51% and only about 639 at 84.51%. The version in use is printed in the game’s information or paytable screen, so check it before you play, and if a casino runs the low settings on the games you like, play them somewhere else.

Can You Tell When a Pokie Will Pay Out?

No. Every spin is decided by a random number generator at the moment you press the button, and nothing that happened on earlier spins changes the next one. There are no hot or cold machines and no machine that is due to pay, near misses are random results like any other, and the venue doesn’t know when a machine will pay either.

That also answers how to make a pokie machine pay out: you can’t. What you can control is the game you choose, the size of your bet against your balance and when you stop. Picking a high RTP game at a casino that runs the full setting is the only real edge a player has, and it only shows over a long time.

Best Paying Pokies FAQ

Which online pokie pays the most?

On our list, Texas Tea at 97.35% and Big Bad Wolf at 97.34% have the highest published returns. Mega Joker can reach 99% in its Supermeter mode, but NetEnt restricts Australia.

Which pokie machine pays the most in Australia?

Venue machines are set within each state’s rules, from a minimum of 85% in New South Wales and the Northern Territory to 87.5% for new machines in South Australia, and Queensland allows up to 92%. The setting varies from machine to machine.

What is a good RTP for a pokie?

96% or more is good for an online pokie, and anything above 97% is rare. Below 94%, a game keeps noticeably more of every bet.

How much do pokies have to pay out in Australia?

Club and pub machines must return at least 85% in New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory, 85% on average per venue in Victoria, 87% in the ACT and Tasmania, and 87.5% for new machines in South Australia.

Do online pokies pay out?

Yes. Online pokies return their published RTP over the long run, usually 94% to 97%. How quickly a win reaches your account depends on the casino’s withdrawal times.

How do you pick a winning pokie machine?

You can’t pick a winner, because every spin is random. You can pick a pokie with a high RTP and a volatility that suits your balance, and check that the casino runs the full RTP setting.

Is a high RTP pokie better when you play with a bonus?

It loses less while you work through wagering, but some casinos exclude certain games from bonus play or count them at a lower rate, so check the bonus terms first.